Exodus 22:22

Hebrew Bible
20 “Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone must be utterly destroyed. 21You must not wrong a resident foreigner nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 22You must not afflict any widow or orphan. 23 If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates) Source

Jeremiah 7:6

Hebrew Bible
5 You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. 6 Stop oppressing resident foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. 7 If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land that I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates) Source

Texts in Conversation

Jeremiah 7 echoes Exodus 22 by repeating the call to protect the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, showing how the prophetic literature reworks earlier traditions. This continuity highlights how Jeremiah draws on deep-rooted ancient Near Eastern traditions that emphasized justice for the vulnerable, reinforces a longstanding moral and social ideal at a time of national turmoil.

Notes and References

"... The concern for the ger is closely followed in Exodus 22:21 by the command about the widow and orphan: “You must not wrong any widow or orphan.” The earliest prophetic text that speaks out against mistreatment of these three groups and which denounces fraud and violent treatment is Jeremiah 22:3 (see also 7:6): “Do not defraud or use violence toward the stranger, the orphan, or the widow.” This same connection of stranger, orphan, and widow is found in Ezekiel 22:7 ... It is perhaps significant that the plight of the ger is not in evidence as a concern in the eighth-century prophets and comes into view only in the late monarchy or early exilic period. It is for this reason that Crüsemann wants to associate the rise of this concern with the downfall of the Northern Kingdom. Since these prophetic texts are from the late monarchy and early exilic period, as are the references in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code, there is no need to tie concern for the ger to this particular historical event of the late eighth century. The combined concerns of Exodus 22:20–21 belong to the same horizon as the exilic prophetic texts and the other two law codes on which it is dependent ..."
Van Seters, John A Law Book for the Diaspora: Revision in the Study of the Covenant Code (p. 131) Oxford University Press, 2003

* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.

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